How fitting that an administration who operates under the economic premise that handing out free stuff is the way to create growth and recovery, is celebrating another pathetic jobs report by … handing out free stuff.

What is she celebrating exactly, the fact that it didn’t go back above 8%? We’re really happy and content with it at 7.9%?

Here’s the chart in question. Notice also, that their predictions had the unemployment rate at 5.2% for October of 2012.

Mitt Romney released the following statement:

“Today’s increase in the unemployment rate is a sad reminder that the economy is at a virtual standstill. The jobless rate is higher than it was when President Obama took office, and there are still 23 million Americans struggling for work. On Tuesday, America will make a choice between stagnation and prosperity. For four years, President Obama’s policies have crushed America’s middle class. For four years, President Obama has told us that things are getting better and that we’re making progress. For too many American families, those words ring hollow. We can do better. We can have real economic growth, create millions of good-paying jobs, and give middle-class families the security and opportunity they deserve. When I’m president, I’m going to make real changes that lead to a real recovery, so that the next four years are better than the last.”

Romney and most Americans see it as yet another sad day in a four-year struggle with the economy and unemployment.

Not the Obama administration.

7.9% unemployment and Hilda Solis is acting like a giddy schoolgirl.

Speaking of young people, take a look at these statistics regarding the new jobs report – You don’t want to be young, female, or a minority in the Obama economy.

Generation Opportunity, the largest non-profit, non-partisan organization in the United States engaging and mobilizing young Americans on the important economic issues facing the nation, announced non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) 18-29 youth unemployment rate data for October 2012 as the Presidential election nears:

The youth unemployment rate for 18-29 year olds specifically for October 2012 is 12.0 percent (NSA).

The youth unemployment rate for 18-29 year old African-Americans for October 2012 is 21.4 percent (NSA); the youth unemployment rate for 18-29 year old Hispanics for October 2012 is 13.4 percent (NSA); and the youth unemployment rate for 18–29 year old Women for October 2012 is 11.8 percent (NSA).

The declining labor force participation rate has created an additiona1.7 million young adults that are not counted as “unemployed” by the U.S. Department of Labor because they are not in the labor force, meaning that those young people have given up looking for work due to the lack of jobs.

If the labor force participation rate were factored into the 18-29 youth unemployment calculation, the actual 18-29-unemployment rate would rise to 16.5 percent (NSA).

Don’t worry though, things can turn around after Election Day.

In a press release to CNN, Romney reiterated his five-point plan to create a real recovery in America:

Together with Paul Ryan, I’ve put forward an economic recovery plan consisting of five central elements that will in four years create 12 million jobs.

We will produce more of the energy we need to heat our homes, fill our cars, and make our economy grow. We will stop President Obama’s war on coal, his disdain for oil, and his effort to crimp natural gas by federal regulation of the very technology that produces it. We will support nuclear and renewables, but phase out subsidies once an industry is on its feet. We will invest in energy science and research to make discoveries that can actually change our energy world. By 2020, we will achieve North American energy independence.

We will retrain our work force for the jobs of tomorrow and ensure that every child receives a quality education no matter where they live, including especially our inner cities. Parents and students, not administrators and unions, need to have greater choice. Our current worker retraining system is a labyrinth of federal programs that sprawls across 47 programs and nine agencies. We will eliminate this redundancy and empower the 50 states and the private sector to develop effective programs of their own.

We will make trade work for America. We’ll open more markets to American agriculture, products, and services. And we will finally hold accountable any nation that doesn’t play by the rules. I will stand up for the rights and interests of American workers and employers.

We will restore fiscal sanity to Washington by bringing an end to the federal spending and borrowing binge that in just four years has added more debt held by the public than almost all previous administrations combined. We will put America on track to a balanced budget by eliminating unnecessary programs, by sending programs back to states where they can be managed with less abuse and less cost, and by shrinking the bureaucracy of Washington.

Finally, we will champion small business, the great engine of job creation in our country, by reforming the tax code and updating and reshaping regulations that have suffocated economic growth.

What do you want America? A President who celebrates mediocrity in America, or a President who will bring back exceptionalism to this great nation?

A Colorado-based consulting, engineering and construction firm, named CH2M Hill, was awarded nearly $2 billion from the stimulus to perform cleanup work at the Hanford nuclear site.

The company used those funds to hire roughly 1,300 employees.

They then inflated the hiring numbers by using a Department of Energy metric known as “lives touched”, which allowed them to boast that the stimulus helped somehow helped or ‘touched’ three-and-a-half times as many people as they had actually employed.

When the stimulus funds ran out, so did the ability to support the jobs created or lives touched. Roughly 1,500 employees were laid off.

The Department of Labor has awarded a $1.3 million National Emergency Grant to help laid-off Hanford workers find jobs.

The largest portion of the money will be used for retraining former Hanford workers who lost their jobs as federal economic stimulus spending at the nuclear reservation came to an end.

“This grant will serve as a safety net for workers and their families during these challenging economic times,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement. Murray and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., sent a letter to Hilda Solis, the secretary of labor, in February, requesting consideration of a state application for the grant.

The money will help an estimated 400 former Hanford workers seeking jobs, giving them intensive employment-related assistance, including training, to help them re-enter the work force in areas of the economy that are growing, according to the Department of Labor…

… The grant is intended to provide money for workers laid off from DOE Hanford prime contractors CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. and Mission Support Alliance and more than 10 subcontractors…

“Workers formerly employed at the Hanford site are facing the challenge of finding jobs comparable to the ones they lost,” Solis said in a statement. “This federal grant aims to help lessen the negative impact of these layoffs.”

So to summarize, CH2M Hill receives $2 billion in stimulus funds, loses a net of roughly 200 jobs, pretends they helped out over three times as many people, and then has to get a government grant to help those who were laid off find jobs.

Government efficiency… the ultimate oxymoron.

Incidentally, I encourage you to read the entire report to find out exactly why Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell have a vested interest in this company’s success. Find it here…